


like explosions in the sky (it's your hand in mine)

by notcaycepollard



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Jemma Simmons: SCIENCE GIRLFRIEND, don't ask me how Will gets back that's not important what's important is these gorgeous babes, mentions of characters with canon PTSD, unremitting fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 19:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5176100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcaycepollard/pseuds/notcaycepollard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma just wants to watch fireworks with Will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like explosions in the sky (it's your hand in mine)

Sometimes, Jemma thinks, it is _very hard_ being English in America.

"I have to tell you," Will says, "I don't entirely understand the point of this holiday."

"Bonfire Night is an important cultural tradition," Jemma says with dignity, "and we are celebrating it, alright? The whole team."

"I mean," he says, "it's just, let me get this clear. You  _burn effigies_ of a Catholic terrorist, and this is somehow a fun night for all the family."

"Excuse me," Jemma tells him, and she  _knows_ he's poking fun at her but she's riled up anyway. "I don't make light of the Fourth of July, do I? Despite the fact that it is a patently absurd holiday."

"I don't know," Will says, crinkles up his eyes in amusement at her. "Do you?"

"I do not," Jemma says, with even more dignity, but she leans in against him, pecks a kiss to his cheek. "And  _anyway_ , we're not going to burn a guy. Coulson said no to that. Apparently it's bad taste. But there will be fireworks, and we are making toffee apples, and it's just going to be  _fun_ , okay?"

"Okay, okay, Professor," Will says, and at that, Jemma grabs him by the collar, drags him in for a longer kiss. "I still don't get it though," he teases. "Where do the anonymous masks come in, again?"

"Oh, for-" Jemma mutters. "I  _cannot believe_ Daisy and Mack decided that was one of the first films you should watch after being away for fourteen years. It's not even that good."

"You can pick the next one," Will tells her, touches her cheek, and she beams up at him for a moment before she smells burning sugar.  _Whoops_. Making toffee apples is not something that allows for _distractions_.

 

+

 

The team gathers in the hangar, the roof open for fireworks, and everyone's eating toffee apples, looking politely perplexed about English junk food. At least Fitz looks like he's having fun. Jemma hopes he is. It's not been easy, Will's presence in the team, and she knows it's harder because she's so  _happy_ , but she's not going to be miserable just because he demands it.

"Ready?" she asks, and they nod, and she lights the fuse of the first firework, steps back to a safe distance, slips her hand into Will's. The rocket shoots up into the sky, explodes into flowers of bright sparks, and everyone makes appropriately impressed noises.

Will doesn't. Will flinches at the noise, the bright light, cringes back just enough that Jemma feels it, and  _oh_ , oh, she should have known, of course she should have _realised_.

"You know, I'm a bit cold," she announces loudly. "We'll just go in to get a jacket for me, right? Daisy, you want to set off the next one? Don't wait for us, it's fine." She makes eye contact with Daisy, and she smiles, nods, gives Jemma an understanding look.

Jemma leads Will back into the base, and as soon as they're inside, he breathes a sigh of relief, takes a couple of deep breaths, unclenches his fist.

"I'm so sorry, Jemma," he says, looking upset. "You were looking forward to it, and I just, I ruined it, I'm sorry, it was just so-"

"Loud," Jemma says. "Loud and bright and terrifying. Will, I _know_. It's not you who should apologise here. When I got back, the noises of the lab, they were  _overwhelming_. I should have  _realised_."

"We can go back out," he offers, taking another deep breath, clearly trying to calm himself down. Jemma shakes her head, wraps her arms around him, presses her face to his chest.

"No," she says, "I have another idea. How do you feel about open spaces?"

"Let's try it," Will murmurs, "if you're there to hold my hand."

 

+

 

Jemma grabs a couple of sleeping bags from the supply cupboard, takes Will up the narrow stairway to the roof. "We shouldn't really be up here," she tells him. "I'm obviously getting into bad girl shenanigans now that you're here."

"Yeah, I'm a terrible influence on you," Will jokes, and Jemma smiles, lays out the sleeping bags.

"So," she says, lying down, and Will lies down next to her. "Stars are a little bit like fireworks, right? Without the loud noises?"

"Gosh, Professor, I don't know," Will says slyly. "You're the one who's an astrophysicist, remember. I'm just a humble astronaut."

"I'm not an  _astrophysicist_ ," Jemma says, realises Will's poking fun at her again and huffs briefly before settling her head into the hollow of his shoulder, clasping his hand over the expanse of his chest. "But when a star goes supernova, it's a stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy. They're really quite brilliant to watch."[  
](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy)

"Science fireworks," Will murmurs. "Definitely better than the regular kind." Jemma smiles again, slides cold fingers under his jumper, and he mutters a complaint but pulls her closer, strokes her hair lightly.

"Oh!" she says after a few minutes. "Did you see? A shooting star!"

"I saw," Will says. "You know, I signed up to NASA thinking I'd be an astronaut, and after it all, I never even got to ride in a rocket? It's all I wanted. The hero walk into the ship, blasting off from Cape Canaveral."

"Oh, I see you managed to see  _Armageddon_ before you left," Jemma mutters. "Easy there, Bruce Willis."

"Please," Will says. "I'm clearly Ben Affleck." Jemma laughs, wriggles in closer to him. "Still," he says after a moment. "No rockets. What a let-down."

" _Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone_ ," Jemma sings softly, trails off, because she's just remembered the rest of the lyrics and she's not _entirely_ sure they're appropriate, but Will picks up the song.

"And I think it's gonna be a long long time,   
Till touch down brings me round again to find  
I'm not the man they think I am at home, oh no no no."

"Did you know," Jemma begins, a little tentative. "Did you know, we can see our sun from here?"

" _Our_ sun?" Will asks, and she nods.

"It's that star there," she says, points, and he follows her finger, squints up into the night sky. "I was able to input the stellar data I'd tracked on the planet, when I got home. That's it, that faint little dot. That's what we were orbiting. That's the sun we couldn't see."

"Does this count as sunrise, then?" Will asks softly, pulls her hand down and brushes kisses to her wrist, the inside of her arm.

"Yes," Jemma says, even though technically it doesn't. Scientifically, it doesn't at all. "Yes, Will, this is sunrise," and when he kisses her again, tugs her into an embrace, Jemma knows. Sometimes science doesn't matter at all.

 


End file.
